The United States President, Donald Trump, has escalated the immigration battle by calling for the imprisonment of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of “failing to protect federal immigration officers.”
Trump made these remarks on his Truth Social platform, stating, “Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE officers! Governor Pritzker also!”
This move is part of the ongoing dispute between Trump’s administration and Illinois authorities over immigration enforcement.
The state and city have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s plan to deploy National Guard troops in the state, deeming it illegal, unconstitutional, dangerous, and wrong.
However, hundreds of Texas National Guard troops have been stationed at an Army Reserve base outside Chicago, despite opposition from Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson.
“This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested. I’m not going anywhere,” Johnson fired back.
Pritzker, on his part, vowed not to back down on the criticism of Trump’s intervention and deployment of federal agents in the state.
“Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”
Nevertheless, Trump had directed ICE to conduct aggressive raids on undocumented migrants in Chicago, which local leaders have vowed to resist. Troops were deployed to Los Angeles and Washington DC to carry out the task and stem what the president has described as “out of control” crime.
Governor Pritzker has accused Trump of acting out of a desire to punish his political enemies, while Mayor Johnson has expressed concerns about the deployment’s impact on the city. Same lawsuit was also filed by Washington DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb, challenging the deployment, saying, “It is not only unnecessary and unwanted, but it is also dangerous and harmful to the District and its residents.”
According to the BBC, Trump has ordered federal agents to head to Memphis and Portland, but a judge has blocked their deployment to Portland while allowing it to proceed in Chicago for now. The state of Illinois and city of Chicago have filed a lawsuit to stop the deployment, with a hearing set for Thursday.
Trump has warned that he’ll invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the military if courts or local officials obstruct his efforts, citing concerns over crime and immigration enforcement.
“If I had to enact it, I’d do it, if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up,” Trump said on Monday.
In addition, White House officials, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, have slammed court efforts to block the deployment, with Miller accusing the courts of “an insurrection against the laws and Constitution of the United States.”
Meanwhile, protests in Chicago turned violent over the weekend, with immigration authorities claiming they shot a woman who allegedly rammed her car into law enforcement vehicles. The woman’s attorney disputes the government’s account. Today, President Trump is set to host a roundtable on tackling Antifa, a loose coalition of far-left activists.
